The Cure for the Common Clod
The Cure for the Common Clod is the eleventh issue of the Futurama series of comic books. Synopsis Fry gets the old 20th Century disease of influenza, otherwise known as the common cold. Unfortunately, it isn't quite as common as it once was. After being put into Bubble Boy style containment, it turns out Leela, Hermes, and Amy have picked it up too, but it effects the populace of the 31st Century a lot differently, making them all revert to primal tendencies. The Professor, Bender, and Zoidberg, whom are all immune to the effects of it, race around trying to get the others contained before more get infected.http://www.futuramics.info/comic.php?issue=11 Full Summary It begins with Fry making out with an alien lady and making dirty jokes. Leela enters, calling him an idiot and telling him that this is not the planet of double entendres. Fry asks where they are, and Bender says that they are on the planet with the civilization based on a book about gangster movies. Then, three law enforcement officials enter with guns. Leela says that they must have some ''decency and the law enforcement officials reply that they're actually based on gangster movie ''parodies. ''They then pie Fry, Leela, and Bender in the face. They leave, along with the woman Fry made out with, who tastes the pie on his face. Later, on the ship, Fry is out of sorts: he feels unwell, his eyes are watering, his nose is running, and his tongue has turned green. Leela supposes Fry must have caught a disease from the alien woman and asks him what's wrong. He says that his throat is sore, his nose is running, and his whole body hurts. He's about to give more info when he sneezes on the console. Leela puts him to bed and leaves Bender in charge while she searches the medical database, where she finds out that Fry has a cold, but colds are rare in the thirty-first century. At Zoidberg's office, Bender and Amy think Fry is pretending to be sick, but Zoidberg notes that most of his patients pretend ''not ''to be sick. Amy is mad at Fry because she thinks he's faking illness to weasle his way out of a party her sorority is having at the lingerie warehouse. Fry tries to refute but he sneezes on her, Bender, Hermes, and Amy, convincing them that he is indeed sick. Zoidberg hears Fry's heartbeat and thinks it's a parasite, but then Professor Farnsworth enters, having just found out that Fry is contagious and will have to be put in a bubble-like container. He is reluctant but goes in anyway and Hermes goes off to work. Bender is concerned that Fry has spread his disease to the others, and the Professor points out that Bender is a robot, he himself is wearing a device that monitors his breathing, and Zoidberg is immune to all diseases because he is an alien and has eaten out of the trash. Leela then strips naked and goes outside, wanting to collect acorns. The Professor and Bender speculate that Leela has caught Fry's cold but it's mutated and made her regress to her primal state. They check on Hermes, who seems normal, but the Professor points out that his regular behavior could just be his primal state. Then, they realize Amy has left and they do not know what her primal urges are, and if she ''is ''infected, she might spread the disease. They go to the lingerie party and don't find Amy, but a woman claims Amy is at the library. They find Amy and she's infected, but her primal urge is to prove Riemann's hypothesis. The Professor is confident that it would take her a while, so she's in no danger of infecting anyone. They're about to go home, when Fry falls downstairs and lands in the city's water supply, then his bubble breaks and he infects the water. The next day, everyone in New New York has the virus, but then Fry recovers. The Professor wants to blow up New New York, but Amy has recovered too, not remembering having the virus. They then find a monster germ on her handkerchief. The Professor then notices everyone sneezing out monster germs, which are turning into one big one. Leela enters, having recovered, and walking a blue blob on a leash. Leela reveals that her blob repels the big one. However, the big blob heads towards Citihall. Fry suggests making more antibodies like Leela's one. They go down into the sewer and tell the mutants down there about their situation. They do not know where to find germs to infect the sewer mutants, but then Fry realizes that he forgot to clean the console, so they use the snot to infect them. The plan works, however snot falls onto the city. However, the germs in it are not active, so everyone celebrates. Trivia *An episode of the series has a similar premise to this comic. However, in the episode, Zoidberg does get sick, and the cold virus acts more like a normal cold. *Fry's eyes were watering. In reality, watery eyes are actually more a symptom of allergies than a cold. *The dirty joke Fry makes is "When Planet Express says we 'deliver the goods', we mean we really ''deliver the goods''''". *Most of the sick characters' unusual symptoms were the coughing up of blobs and the primal instincts. However, Fry's unusual symptoms were a green tongue, watery eyes, and red urine. It is unknown why he had those symptoms. *The disease is still called the "''common ''cold", even though it's rare in the thirty-first century. *When the characters were seen going wild with the disease, a number of known characters could be seen. Namely, Morbo, Lrrr and his wife, the police, Amy, Farnsworth's clone, the old woman, Kif, Calculon, Morgan, Leela, Mom, Tinny Tim, and Zapp Brannigan. Cultural references *Fry claims that the alien woman looks like Angie Dickinson. Angie Dickinson is a real-life American actress. *The gangster aliens have a magazine with the word "MAD" on the cover. Mad Magazine is a real life magazine that features parodies. *Bender mentions being on an Alice in Wonderland planet. Alice in Wonderland is a popular book in the real world. References Category:Comic books